And while it's true that you may have to deal with no more Lufthansa
advance First Class availability (although you can still often get it at the last minute) it is now possible to book last minute Singapore business class awards on United.
Out of the cheapest options for redemption on this route, you probably have the best chance of
finding first class availability with British Airways and Alaska Airlines.
Recently their miles have gotten more valuable because they've gotten more flexible, allowing mixed cabin redemptions and Lufthansa first class redemptions (although One Mile at a Time suggests they aren't showing all Lufthansa
first class availability at this time.
In fact, Singapore almost never
opens first class availability on its North American routes to any of its partners, so if you want that suite, you'll have to use Singapore miles.
Zurich came up trumps with
more First Class availability than I knew what to do with so that was going to be my jumping off point for my Cathay Pacific First Class flight.
-- Korean (Skyteam) offers
unbeatable first class availability (A380 First Class Trip Report here) and they also have true bargains on partner travel, just 30,000 miles to fly round - trip on Hawaiian or Alaska to Hawaii in coach or 60,000 miles in first.
And since I was having a tough time finding Lufthansa
first class availability out of NYC on my required date, I fortunately found what I needed out of Washington DC Dulles (IAD), on the A340 - 300, and I was able to book this Lufthansa first class award 15 days in advance.
-- Korean (Skyteam) offers
incredible first class availability and they also have true bargains on partner travel, just 30,000 miles to fly round - trip on Hawaiian or Alaska to Hawaii in coach or 60,000 miles in first.
And while it's true that you may have to deal with no more Lufthansa
advance First Class availability (although you can still often get it at the last minute) it is now possible to book last minute Singapore business class awards on United.
Sure enough, I
found first class availability on Air New Zealand from Auckland to Honolulu, then first class on US Air from Honolulu to Los Angeles to Phoenix.
With some cities you need to be a bit careful because, while you'll connect just fine to the trans - Atlantic First Class flight, it can be hard to find
First Class availability on the domestic portion of the trip:
Searching only Economy will not show you when Business or
First Class availability might exist where Economy does not.
The dates in our example only have
first class availability.
For the LA — Zurich portion of my trip Aeroplan was showing no Business or
First Class availability on SWISS — the only flights available were on other Star Alliance partners and they all involved a stopover:
It's worth noting that it's tougher than ever before to find first class Star Alliance award space on Lufthansa and Swiss (see How to Deal with No More Lufthansa Advance
First Class Availability), so nowadays this is most practical when planning close to departure, as Lufthansa tends to open up award space no more than three weeks out.
For example, Lufthansa and Swiss no longer release first class award availability in advance (See How to Deal with No More Lufthansa Advance
First Class Availability) and when they do release some close to the departure date there may only be 1 seat available.
There was
no first class availability at the time, but was hoping to upgrade when available Which is usually a few weeks prior from what I've read.